Randstad Workmonitor 4th quarter 2015: employee outlook 2016

According to the latest findings of the Randstad Workmonitor, employers have an increasing need for STEM profiles (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), say 42% of the respondents globally.

71% said that more students should focus on a career in STEM. More than two thirds of the respondents (67%) agree that their employer should invest more in developing digital skills. Finally, if the respondents were 18 years old again, 63% would focus on a study field within STEM and even more (84%) would focus on a study field within digital/online.

Finding the right talent remains an issue for employers. 57% of the global respondents said that their employer has trouble in finding the right talent today and they expect it to become increasingly difficult for their employer to find the right talent in the future. In Australia, 73% of the respondents think it’s the most difficult to source the right talent, while Norway is at the other end of the scale with 37%.

With regard to the digitalization in their job, 78% say that they feel equipped to deal with this trend. In Mexico, people are even more confident (96%), but in Japan, however, people are less so (42%). Only 31% of the respondents expect that their job to be automated within the next 5 to 10 years.

On a global level, employees are quite positive for 2016: 58% believe the economic situation in their country will improve in 2016, which is the same as last year. Employees in Australia are the most positive (90%); people in Chile and Greece are the least positive (35% and 19% respectively). 53% of the respondents indicated that their employer performed better financially in 2015 than in 2014, and 71% expect their employer to perform even better in 2016. Only 51% expect to receive a raise, however, and 48% to receive a one-time financial bonus at the end of this year.

Quarterly recurring items

The number of employees who expect to find another job within the next six months slightly dropped to 109 in the last quarter, which results in a steady index since 2012. Looking deeper, there are some changes in mobility compared to the last quarter, such as the increases in Malaysia (+5), Canada, Chile and Hong Kong (+3). Contrary to these increases, mobility shows a decline in France (-9), and India and Turkey (-7). In The Netherlands, Denmark, China, Czech Republic and Poland employees haven’t changed their expectations towards mobility.

The number of employees worldwide who actually changed jobs in the last six months went down slightly to 22% (compared to 24% in the last quarter). Although mobility in India is among the lowest, they show the highest job change together with Portugal, Turkey, Austria, Australia and Malaysia. Luxembourg has the lowest job change (4%).

The appetite to change jobs increased in Greece, Singapore, Slovakia, Denmark, China and Norway compared to last quarter. The UK, Italy, India, Czech Republic, Brazil, Poland and Japan show a decrease. Employees in Luxembourg and Portugal have the lowest appetite to change jobs.

In 20 countries, more than 70% of the employees are ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ with their current employer. Job satisfaction was highest in Canada, Norway, Australia and India. The percentage of employees that are (very) dissatisfied ranks under 25% in only one country.